The Getty Foundation has singled out 10 architectural landmarks from the 20th century worth preserving, from Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House in Chicago to Le Corbusier's apartment and studio in Paris to Jørn Utzon’s Sydney Opera House. The new campaign, Keeping it Modern, aims to maintain some of recent history's epic feats of building and design by offering sizeable grants to the foundations charged with looking after them. Getty recognizes these foundations as upholding models of conservation for the modern age.

The grants range in scope from $50,000 to $200,000 and will be used in part to research methods of preserving the exterior and interior portions of these structures. "Modern architecture is one of the defining artistic expressions of the 20th century," Deborah Marrow, director of the Getty Foundatio...